Real Wedding

Real Wedding: Katie & Erika

Katie & Erika

June 26, 2011

When Katie and Erika got married on June 26, 2011 at Sandy Point State Park in Annapolis, Md., they were mentally preparing themselves for their honeymoon in Tahiti. “We both love beach settings,” Katie said. “And for our wedding, we wanted a location that was laid back and would make it easier for everyone to bring their kids.” They wanted to make sure their wedding was anything but “stuffy.”

They ordered 36 cabana beach towels for their 130 guests to sit on during the ceremony, because chairs were not allowed on the beach. “I still wanted to create something that looked like an aisle,” Katie explained. Erika and her wedding party waited up front, and Katie walked herself down the aisle. They were married by a priest from the Episcopal Church they attend.

The two women did most of the wedding planning together. They picked out their outfits together, and decided on flower lays rather than bouquets, both to keep costs down and to maximize the beach look. They chose the print for the bridesmaids dresses online, and allowed each girl to pick her own style.

The ceremony at the beach pavilion was fun and casual, just like the brides. They served barbeque and veggie wraps. There was hula hooping, Frisbee throwing, and sand castle building. Children and adults played together, and everyone danced to the playlist the ladies had assembled with the help of Katie’s youngest sister.

Family and friends assisted in all sorts of ways. A friend of Erika’s made the wedding cake. Katie’s 12-year old daughter went through piles of family photos to create decorative heart-shaped collages, and one of Katie’s sisters was the bartender. She even created two drink styles: “Katie Style” was a little sweeter, and “Erika style” was a little stronger.

The couple met in 2005, during a power outage. Katie, who is 34, was the manager of the apartment complex where Erika, 31, lived. To keep residents distracted during the outage, Katie brought them sodas and hung out with them. Erika had moved in a few months earlier, but Katie didn’t notice her until that evening.

When the same-sex marriage law passed in Washington, DC in 2010, Katie’s mother called to ask if they were in line to get married. When Katie got home that evening, she asked Erika if she wanted to. “A proposal is a little anticlimactic when you’ve already been living together for a few years,” Erika said. Still, the wedding brought them even closer. “It was just perfect. The perfect location and the perfect group of people. It was just great.”

About The Writer

Denise Oliveira is a journalist in love with love stories. She is the co-founder of Prequels, where she interviews engaged couples to create wedding invitations and favors that incorporate their love story. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in New York City and believes that sharing personal stories is a powerful way to create and deepen relationships. She blogs for Huffington Post Weddings and can be reached via email (denise@prequels.net), Twitter or Facebook.